Helpful hints while seaching

While conducting a search for land, you may come across names, numbers, and various jargon that are not self-explanatory. Feel free to post a comment or question under CONTACT. I'm happy to answer.

Puna is the district south and east of Hilo and is labeled 1. So properties in Puna begin with 3-1. (Three is for the Island of Hawaii.) I specialize in lower Puna, which I will generalize and say is in the TMKs (tax map keys) 3-1-2, 3-1-3, 3-1-4 and 3-1-5. The addresses in lower Puna begin with 12-, 13-, 14- and 15-XXXX due to the use to the tax map key numbers. Upper Puna is in the TMKs of 3-1-1, 3-1-6, 3-1-7, 3-1-8 and 3-1-9 and therefore addresses there begin with either 11-, 16-, 17-, 18- or 19-XXXX. By upper and lower, I mean elevation. Lower Puna gets slightly to significantly less rain and has the capacity to grow tender tropicals. Upper Puna may be too cool for bananas, papayas, and a few other tropical fruits.

Hopefully that explains the numbers. Now for names. Understand that many of the subdivisions and most of the street names are Hawaiian names. Pronouncing them gets easier with practice and the lovely thing about the Hawaiian language is that the vowels never change. There is no long and short vowel sounds. So once you master the vowels, the rest is a snap.

Now for Lava Zones. Do you really want to know? Huh? I'm going to save that for my next blog.

USGS map image of part of lower Puna. The East Rift Zone is Lava Zone 1.